FX received some encouraging Nielsen news from Tuesday night's airing of The Shield: The award-winning cop series scored the highest rating to date of its third season.
The March 23 installment pulled a 2.8 household rating from 10 p.m.-11 p.m., a 33% jump from the prior week's episode, according to Nielsen Media Research data. That performance also topped the 2.6 the show delivered with its third-season premiere March 9.
The Shield
attracted 3.3 million viewers March 23, its largest audience this season and one that matched the average of its first two seasons.
In addition to ranking first on basic cable among total viewers that night, the Michael Chiklis vehicle also set basic cable's paces for the evening among adults 18-49 (2.1 million), adults 18-34 (1 million), adults 25-54 (2 million), males 18-49 (1.5 million), males 18-34 (748,000) and males 25-54 (1.3 million).
